How does your product represent particular social groups?

1. Evaluation Task 2
How does your product represent particular social groups?
The main social group primarily represented in our opening sequence would be white, lower
class, teenaged males. This is primarily because of the fact that the character who gets the
most screen time and focus, is a member of that particular social group.
Due to our decision to use a continuity sequence of our main character getting
ready in his own home, how we represented this social group can be seen from
the very start of the sequence. In the very first shots of the opening the main
character (Jack) is seen to be untidy, scruffy and lazy. These things can be
assumed through the mise en scene and costume in some of the early shots. His
bedroom is an utter mess with clothes all over the floor and pizza boxes and drink
bottles strewn around his room. Furthermore, when Jack gets out of bed CD’s
and movie cases can be seen carelessly scattered over his shelf. This not only
conotes Jacks interests to the audience, but also further reinforces the idea that
Jack is a messy, unorganised character. Some of the aforementioned bottles in
Jack’s room can be seen to be empty alcohol bottles, implying that he is a
drinker. This combined with the fact that he is coming home very early in the morning, stumbling
around and falling into bed can lead the audience to connote that this character was
most likely out drinking.
Costume was also used to help the audience understand the social stature of the
character. Jack himself at the start of the sequence is wearing a very cheep looking
pair of tracksuit bottoms and a matching coloured hoodie with black shoes with the
laces undone. This outfit can not only continue to show the scruffiness of the
character, but also lead the audience to connote his social class as being low. Further
reinforcing this connotation is the mise en scene and the characters actions in the kitchen. The
kitchen can be seen to be very small, which tends to be the case in less expensive housing. It is
also incredibly messy and unorganized with their being pizza boxes over the countertops and a
clock just propped up against the window. Jack can also be seen as eating some of the pizza
that is lying around, on the kitchen surfaces before he leaves for school in place of breakfast.

2. This leads the audience to connote that he is rushed for time and does not care much for his
own diet/health.
Putting all these factors together, it could be said that (at least in the
opening minute of our sequence) we are reinforcing the negative
stereotype of lower class, teenaged males being lazy, slobs who
misbehave with no care for their own well being. This is a stereotype
seen across a wide array of media products, whether it is groups of
young teenaged delinquents in gangs in some films like “Attack The
Block”, who are portrayed (at least from the outset) as nasty people who are too
lazy to work and steal instead, or characters like “Eggsy” from the movie
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” who, admittedly, does get character development
further into the film but is at first portrayed as undesirable character who
starts fights, races cars and drinks.
Furthermore, Jacks choice of outfit (primarily the hoodie) is commonly
associated with antisocial behavior in the media, be it films, TV or the news. This
look and type of behavior is commonly linked with young, lower class teenagers
such as our character Jack and the character of “Shifty” from the film “Shifty” This
look combined with the use of the graffiti font for our main title could definitely
imply to the audience that Jack is a violent, antisocial sort of person.
However, as our opening progresses we attempt to challenge this common stereotype.
The way in which the main character walks does not show an outgoing personality. Jack is
very closed, with his hands inside of his pockets and head slouched over. His stride is not
that of confidence and swagger but more normal and reserved. Putting this together it can
be seen that he does not fit the loud obnoxious delinquent character type the audience
would initially assume he would. Furthermore, when Jack gets to the school and
begins interacting with his friend he is seen to talk in rather shy sounding
standard english. This would challenge the very common stereotype of lower
class teenagers speaking in location specific slang and helps add some level of
intrigue to the character in turn.
In conclusion, although we did reinforce certain aspects of the typical social group stereotypes,
we ended up countering them with some character traits and behaviours that went against these
stereotypes.